Combination bifurcated garment



Nov. 29, 1966 M. KAPLAN 3,287,739

COMBINATION BIFURCATED GARMENT Filed Sept. 4, 1963 K5 I F/G.2

United States Patent 3,287,739 COMBINATION BIFURCATED GARMENT Morris Kaplan, Allentown, Pa., assignor t0 Sondra Manufacturing Co., Inc, Allentown, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Sept. 4, 1963, Ser. No. 306,427 3 Claims. (Cl. 2224) The present invention relates to a combination bifurcated garment, and it particularly relates to a panty leg covering garment.

Although not limited thereto, the present invention will be particularly related to a knitted garment having a relatively loose top panty construction and a relatively snug closely fitting thigh, knee and leg covering garment.

It is among the objects of the present invention to provide a novel bifurcated garment of the character described in which the garments may be combined at or adjacent, above the knee so as to give the desirable fit and at the same time an attractive appearance.

Another object is to provide a combination of the garment above described which will be desirable in appearance, particularly useful for feminine wear and which will provide a lower body and leg covering structure having excellent fitting qualities.

Still further objects and advantages will appear in the more detailed description set forth below, it being understood, however, that this more detailed description is given by way of illustration and explanation only and not by way of limitation, since various changes therein may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

In accomplishing the above objects, it has been found most satisfactory to combine a closely knit type of leg covering garment which will cling to the feet, leg and lower thigh portions with a more loosely knit panty garment which will carry and support the same with an intermediate multi-ply junction midway between the knee and crotch or desirably somewhat closer to the crotch than to the knee.

In making this garment, desirably an extra inserted strip of garment which may take the form of a decorative piece of lace may be attached to the junction between the panty and the legging portion so as to stabilize the garment at this point and so as to support both the legging portion upon the thigh in relation to the normal support which is given to the waist band portion for the upper panty part of the garment.

Desirably, the thigh and leg covering portions are provided with a single scam in the back whereas the panty is formed with one vertical seam. in the back and two vertical seams in the rear and with an inserted crotch portion'to give the necessary resiliency at the crotch.

Desirably, it is found that the panty portion of the garment may have a striated vertical knit pattern with alternate stripe varying knit loops which may vary from strip to strip, or the panty garment may be knitted of a single type of knit construction with the wales being uniform but of greater depth than the wales in the leg and thigh covering portion.

The wales may extend vertically or above the waist and leg covering portion with the courses being more closely spaced than in the panty portion.

However, in the preferred construction of the present invention, the wales of the leg covering portion may extend horizontally and transversely around the leg whereas the wales in the panty portion may extend vertically with the courses being at right angles to each other.

By this combination, it is possible to achieve a better fit around the leg and thigh and a better suspension of the leg and thigh portions from the waist.

Although the age group may widely vary, it has been found that this type of garment is particularly satisfactory for children and particularly girls from the ages of three to ten years of. age.

Desirably, the providing of supporting elastic both at the junction of the panty and leg covering garment above the knee and shortly below the crotch in combination with the elastic around the waist will give a most satisfactory. support and fit of the garment.

A particularly important feature of the present invention is the fact that bagginess of the usual type of knitted garment which is solely supported at the waist and which extends with a single support at the waist down to cover the foot is avoided.

The additional support above the knee and below the crotch will reduce the tendency of the garment to become baggy or loose, and the difference in structure in the lower part of the garment as compared to the upper part of the garment will give a most desirable closely fitting garment which will not tend to become baggy and with the normal wearing when upon the childs lower body portion.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention consists of the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts as hereinafter more specifically described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein is shown an embodiment of the invention, but it is to be understood that changes, variations and modifications can be resorted to which fall within the scope of r the claims hereunto appended.

In the drawings wherein like reference characters denote corresponding. parts throughout the several views:

FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of one type of garment according to the present invention showing as it would be expanded upon the body and leg portion of the wearer.

FIG. 2 is a transverse sectional view upon the line 22 of FIG. 1 upon an enlarged scale as compared to FIG. 1 showing the junction.

FIG. 2a is an enlarged fragmentary view showing, the direction of the wales and courses.

FIG. 2b is an enlarged diagrammatic view showing the direction of the wales and courses in the lower leg covering portion.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary transverse sectional view upon the line 3-3 of FIG. 1 and upon an enlarged scale as compared to FIG. 1 showing the attachment of the upper elastic band.

FIG. 4 is a transverse sectional view of the upper panty portion of the garment upon an enlarged scale as compared to FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a sectional transverse view of the leg covering portion of the garment upon the line 55 of FIG. 1 and upon an enlarged scale as compared to FIG. 1.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 5, there is shown a bifurcated garment A for completely coveringv the body of a young person between the ages of three to ten having an upper panty portion B and a lower leg and thigh covering portion C with the waist elastic support structure D and the intermediate elastic junction structure E.

The garment is designed to give most satisfactory fitting qualities at the crotch portion G, over the knee portions F and down to the feet portion H and particularly over the lower thigh portion J and the leg portions K as best indicated in FIG. 1.

Although not limited thereto, the present invention will be particularly described with its application toa relatively large loop knit structure in the panty portion B as indicated by the large loops 10 in FIG. 2a with the wales extending vertically as indicated by the arrow 11 and the courses extending horizontally as indicated by the arrow 12 in contrast to the lower leg covering portion C which has a much smaller and finer knit structure with the wales extending horizontally, as indicated by the arrow 13 and the courses extending vertically as indicated by the arrow 14.

In one form of the invention, the loops in the body covering portion B may have a length or stitch size from two to five times the length of the loops 15 in the leg portion C with a preferred ratio of between 2 to 1 and 3 to 1 between the loop size or stitch size in the upper portion B as contrasted to the lower leg covering portion C.

In this manner, a much more satisfactory fit is achieved with much less tendency toward bagginess or looseness and with a closer confirmation of the body outline than would be achieved with a single knit structure extending from the foot covering portion to the waist.

Furthermore, the increased looseness of the upper body covering portion B because of its longer loops gives better flexibility around the waist and crotch which is desirable whereas the finer loop structure around the leg and thigh will give closer fitting of such portions.

Referring particularly to FIG. 3, the elastic structure around the waist consists of a band of elastic 16 which has a projecting portion 16 and which is held in position by three lines of stitching 18 to the upper peripheral edge portion of the structure B.

Desirably as shown in FIG. 4, this structure is provided with a series of vertical seams including a central front seam 20 and three rear seams 21 and 22, the rear seam 22 extending vertically to the middle rear of the garment to the crotch thereof.

Normally, the upper garment will be made of at least four panels, two front and side panels 24 extending vertically of the upper garment from the middle seam 20 at the front thereof to the rear seams 21 at the rear thereof extending vertically midway of each buttock.

The two vertical rear panels 25 will also extend from the waist down to the crotch.

The crotch portion as indicated at 26 in FIGS. 1 and 4 will desirably be attached between the rear sections 25 and will be desirably attached between the rear sections 25 and at the lower portion of the front seam 20 which with two split seams 27 will extend along the crotch insert 26 which extends from the lower end 28 of the seam 22 to the lower end 29 of the front seam 20.

This crotch insert 26 may consist of a double thickness of the material of the upper body covering portion B, and it desirably will be positioned slightly above the junction E and substantially below the waist line D.

Referring to the lower junction E, there is provided an inturned edge 40 which is stitched at 41 to the intermediate extension strip 42 which may be of lace or other decorative fabric and to the inturned edge 43 of the fabric of the lower leg covering portion C.

The lowermost strip will be an elastic strip 44 which will extend around the leg and give an elastic support midway between the knee F and crotch G.

The leg portion C is desirably provided with a rear seam 45 having the stitching 46 which extends the entire length thereof from the junction E to the base of the foot H.

Normally, the entire garment is made inside-out with all of the stitching of the seams 20, 21, 22, and 45 being done with the garment in this position.

The connection between the upper garment portion B and the lower garment portion C is also made with the garment inside-out and the stitching 41 is applied to the edges 40 and 43 and to the intermediate extra strip 42 and the elongated elastic strip 44 is in reverse position.

Then the garment is turned so that all of the seams 20, 21, 22 and 45 as well as the junction E will be turned inwardly as shown in FIGS. 2, 4 and to give the desirable garment structure as shown in FIG. 1.

By this construction, it is possible to achieve a most satisfactory fitting of the upper garment portion B as well as the leg covering portion C with assurance that the elastic supports 16 at the waist D and 44 at the leg junction E will both be available to draw up the garment and keep it snug around the leg as well as the waist and crotch portion of the wearer.

Furthermore, the garment will be much easier to adjust and the tendency of the knee or leg portion to become baggy will be largely eliminated.

The difference in structure of the knit fabric in the body portion B as compared to the leg portion C will eliminate uneven fitting and tendency toward undue looseness and will give assurance of a snug fit around the legs and knees at all times while at the same time the panty portion will be most comfortable and may be readily adjustable without distrubing the fit around the upper thigh, leg and knee.

The tendency of the upper crotch portion G to slip down and be uncomfortable will also be eliminated because of the intermediate support of the elastic 44 above the knees.

Desirably, both the upper and lower garment portions B and C are formed of a stretchable knit yarn with the stretchability of the lower leg covering portion being greater than the upper stretchability of the body covering portion by a ratio of 2 or 3 to 1 so that there will be a closer fit around the leg covering portion and the body covering portion.

The leg covering portion may desirably be from a stretch nylon whereas the body covering portion may be formed of ordinary knitted structures, or Merrow stitching.

As stated before, the garments above may be made of various sizes for infants and children usually of the feminine sex ranging from 6 to 18 months up to size 14 which extends up to 10 to 14 years of age, with the lower garment C being made of stretch nylon and with the upper garment being made of stretch nylon and all of the seams 18, 41 and 46 being formed of Merrow stitching.

Desirably the stretch nylon may be utilized in the leg portion C although it may be utilized both for the body portion as well as the leg portion.

The knit may be of tricot or circular knit and desirably the yarns are heavier than the panty portion than in the leg portion by a ratio of 2 to 1 or 3 to 1.

It is desirable to have a greater stretch in the upper garment by one and one-half to three times than in the lower leg covering portion, and the lower leg covering portion is desirably formed of a two bar tricot stretch nylon knit.

As a preferred type of yarn, 70-denier nylon or polyester yarn may be used for the leg portion.

In finishing the garment, the fabric should desirably successively be scoured, extracted, dyed and extracted, and then dried in relaxed condition.

Where the fabrics have been thus treated, they may be calendered and then cut to form the final garment as shown in FIGS. 1 to 5.

If desired, the front panels 24 below the crotch 26 may extend into and form part of the rear panels 25 as indicated in FIG. 4 so that each side structure on each side of the central seams 20 and 22 may consist of one piece of knitted fabric with the junction taking place alongside of the crotch and around the upper thigh portions below the crotch.

The garment is desirably attractive and inexpensive to produce and has better wearing and fitting qualities than one piece garments.

As many changes could be made in the above combination bifurcated garment, and many widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope of the claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

nature of the invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, what is claimed is:

1. A combination panty and leg covering garment comprising an upperpanty garment and a lower leg covering garment both of knitted fabrics, said garments being of diiferent knit structures and the lower leg covering garment having lower thigh, knee, leg and foot covering portions and the upper garment having waist, crotch and upper thigh covering portions and said garments being joined together by an inturned circular seam between the crotch'and the knee and intermediate of the thigh and elastic bands being positioned at the waist and at the inturned circular seam independently to support the garment both at the waist and intermediately of the thigh, the knitting loops and stitches in the upper panty garment being two to four times in size than the loops in the lower leg covering garment, and the wales extending vertically in the upper panty garment and horizontally in the lower leg covering garment and the courses extending horizontally in the upper panty garment and vertically in the lower leg covering garment.

2. A combination panty and leg covering garment comprising an upper panty garment and a lower leg covering garment both of knitted fabrics, said garments being of different knit structures and the lower leg covering garment having lower thigh, knee, leg and foot covering portions and the upper garment having waist, crotch and upper thigh covering portions and said garments being joined together by an inturned circular seam between the crotch and the knee and intermediate of the thigh and elastic bands being positioned at the waist and at the inturned circular seam independently to support the garment both at the waist and intermediately of the thigh, said garment being provided with a single seam along the back of the lower leg covering portion and with a plurality of vertical seams extending across the upper panty garments one of the seams extending vertically downwardly across the front of the garment and three seams extending downwardly across the back of the garment, the knitting loops and stitches in the upper panty garment being two to four times in size than the loops in the lower leg covering garment, and the wales extending vertically in the upper panty garment and horizontally in the lower leg covering garment and the courses ex tending horizontally in the upper panty garment and vertically in the lower leg covering garment.

3. A combination panty and leg covering garment comprising an upper panty garment and a lower leg covering garment both of knitted fabrics, said garments being of different knit structures and the lower leg covering garment having lower thigh, knee, leg and foot covering portions and the upper garment having waist, crotch and upper thigh covering portions and said garments being joined together by an inturned circular seam between the crotch and the knee and intermediate of the thigh and elastic bands being positioned at the waist and at the inturned circular seam independently to support the garment both at the waist and intermediately of the thigh, said lower leg covering garment being formed of a single piece of fabric vertically seamed at the back of the leg and said upper panty garment being formed of two front and side panels seamed together at a front vertical seam extending vertically of the front of the upper panty garment and two narrow rear sections extending vertically of the rear of the garment and seamed together along a vertical seam at the rear of the garment and attached to the front and side panels by vertical seams extending vertically across the middle of the buttock and an extra crotch section of double thickness being provided between the front panels and the rear panels between said seams, the knitting loops and stitches in the upper panty garment being two to four times in size than the loops in the lower leg covering garment, and the wales extending vertically in the upper panty garment and horizontally in the lower leg covering garment and the courses extending horizontally in the upper panty garment and vertically in the lower leg covering garment.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Re 25,360 3/1963 Rice 2224 405,903 6/1889 North 2224 X 1,062,398 5/ 1913 Heacock 2224 2,000,898 5/1935 Donaldson 2224 2,054,547 9/ 1936 Krumbein 2225 2,697,925 12/ 1954 Goodman 2227 X FOREIGN PATENTS 1,191,122 4/1959 France.

JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

ROBERT V. SLOAN, Examiner.

A. R. GUEST, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A COMBINATION PANTY AND LEG COVERING GARMENT COMPRISING AN UPPER PANTY GARMENT AND LOWER LEG COVERING GARMENT BOTH OF KNITTED FABRICS, SAID GARMENTS BEING OF DIFFERENT KNIT STRUCTURES AND THE LOWER LEG COVERING GARMENT HAVING LOWER THIGH, KNEE, LEG AND FOOT COVERING PORTIONS AND THE UPPER GARMENT HAVING WAIST, CROTCH AND UPPER THIGH COVERING PORTIONS AND SAID GARMENTS BEING JOINED TOGETHER BY AN INTURNED CIRCULAR SEAM BETWEEN THE CROTCH AND THE KNEE AND INTERMEDIATE OF THE THIGH AND ELASTIC BANDS BEING POSITIONED AT THE WAIST AND AT THE INTURNED CIRCULAR SEAM INDEPENDENTLY TO SUPPORT THE GARMENT BOTH AT THE WAIST AND INTERMEDIATELY OF THE THIGH, THE KNITTING LOOPS AND SWITCHES IN THE UPPER PANTY GARMENT BEING TWO TO FOUR TIMES IN SIZE THAN THE LOOPS IN THE LOWER LEG COVERING GARMENT, AND THE WALES EXTENDING VERTICALLY IN THE UPPER PANTY GARMENT AND HORIZONTALLY IN THE LOWER LEG COVERING GARMENT AND THE COURSES EXTENDING HORIZONTALLY IN THE UPPER PANTY GARMENT AND VERTICALLY IN THE LOWER LEG COVERING GARMENT. 